Yamaha TW200

Yamaha TW200
When James Kellas left England for Australia, he had to leave his drag-racing hobby at home. So he ordered a TW200 to use as a commuter bike, and tore it apart. He installed a fuel tank from an RD250 and added clip-ons, new wheels and a longer swingarm. (As you can see from the picture, James has a great eye for color too.) He also fitted a new seat, exhaust and air filter. The little 196cc thumper now has a good turn of speed. Last month it clocked 74 mph—that’s 119 kph—during the Australian Speed Week, setting a new national open class 250cc record at Lake Gairdner. Do you know any other commuter bikes that have broken national speed records?

Pentax *ist DL | f/5.6 | ISO 200 | Focal length 18mm

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Filed Under Custom Motorcycles, Racing Motorcycles From
  • andy

    My old RD200 went 72mph. After about 2 miles of laying on the tank. With a slight tailwind. It never looked quite as good as this bike does, that’s for sure.

    • http://www.bikeexif.com Chris Hunter

      I think a standard TW200 tops out at about 60 mph, so Kellas has got a 30% increase in top speed. Pretty good for a bike that hasn’t had a heavily reworked engine.

    • http://www.bikeexif.com Chris Hunter

      I met James and his bike at the Lovers’ Land exhibition party at Deus last night, and can confirm that the bike looks stunning in the metal!

  • http://www.instinctivefitness.asia Ben

    I’ll never understand why manufacturers never do limited production runs of bikes like this one. Just beautiful.

  • james nickerson

    Very nicely modded bike, looks great. I am currently tearing apart my 2005 model of the same, I am going the opposite direction tho, I’m adding more low end instead of the top end. When I bought it new it would do 125 kmh, and 130 kmh going down a hill. After a year or two I’m lucky to get 115 or 120 out of it, and it’s screaming at that point. With the increase in teeth for my front and rear sprocket I get about 100 kmh, but the front end will come off the ground in 2nd or 3rd with work. Either way, great looking bike and here’s to the thumpin’ little TW200. Cheers.

  • Richard

    I’ve got a 2009 tw200. I went down two teeth on the rear sprocket and it goes 70mph on flat roadway without any other mods. Other then the sprocket it’s bone stock.

  • Ted

    Ben said:
    “I’ll never understand why manufacturers never do limited production runs of bikes like this one.”

    Huh?? Yamaha has been making the tw200 for over 15 years!

  • graham

    Its funny i just bought a 2009 tw i thought that the bike simply would barely do 50 mph with my 6’2 341 lb frame on it ( that was the opinion of most sites i visited). I must say that it pulls me strongly at 60 mph and at 65 starts to top out…. however i have had it maxed completely out at 70 mph.
    P.S. by the way it is completly stock at the moment.